Cowardice will speak loudly.

And other social media DOHs.

Reporters and journalists filmed, photographed, and reported on the murder of 24-year-old Biswajit Das as he was beaten and stabbed to death in a political youth rally in Bangladesh. You can read the story at Global Voices.

Some have spoken out against the cowardice of media agents who did nothing to save the young man’s life.

Others have spoken out in defense of the media agents inaction and so-called professional neutrality.

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You may (or may not) remember Kevin Carter’s Pulitizer Prize winning photograph of the helpless, starving Sudanese child and the nearby vulture waiting to feed. Carter was much criticized for his admitted failure to assist the child. Carter was also compared to the vulture.

Some years later, Carter would commit suicide.

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Here’s my take on the journalists that watched Biswajit Das being murdered :

Cowardice will speak loudly. And cowards will vehemently defend cowardice – even if it is the failure and, ultimately, self-defeat of another coward.

Self-defeat gathers company just like a flame will draw moths.

The dignity and worth of the human person is an apriori and necessary proposition of our existential, social and political condition. One’s duty as an employee, professional, artist, etc. is secondary to our profound obligation to help the other who faces immediate, great danger.

Any confusion of this represents a cultural problematic of considerable scandal. Such confusion also signals that human happiness, freedom and life as the cornerstones of political community are not in high regard.

Today, I also suppose that enlightenment (of either the philosophical or spiritual kind) shall not be found in Bangladesh. Nor among the company of journalists.

Sucking in Syria

Syrian protesters are dying. Everyday, it seems. Maybe, eight were killed yesterday. Four, the day before. More Syrians will die, tomorrow. Through links on Twitter, I’m getting to see some videos of the dead and dying. There’s blood. Tears. Crying. There’s the crack of AK47s.

The protesters are demanding Freedom. Change. Opportunity. Reform. They want to make a better world.

Syrians are not just dying. They are being murdered. The killing is intentional.

Protesters are being murdered by soldiers or police who have been ordered to do so by their government. They might not look like you or me. They may not even speak the same language. But, unless, you are hopelessly all wrapped up in you, you know that other people are losing the people that they love and care about. In an instant.

In a gruesome, grim, split-second instant, love seems to be cancelled.